Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

This Cannot End Well

Chapter 15

"No." Shirou said firmly, a stubborn expression appearing on his face as he shook his head. "No…I refuse. Absolutely not…I refuse to believe that…that I…that I could ever turn into someone as cynical and jaded as you."

Archer snorted in contempt. "Of course you would say that." He said. "Just like how you'd willingly throw yourself in front of a bus to save a little girl and her cat from getting run over."

Shirou clenched his fists angrily. "And just what is wrong with that?" he asked heatedly.

Archer smiled coldly. "Let's say you managed to push the girl and her cat out of the way." He said. "Bravo. You managed to get yourself killed in the process, but that's alright, isn't it? Your life doesn't matter, so long as it's given for another. How noble. How selfless. How admirable. But, let's examine that scenario further. The bus hits you, your body either bounces or gets splattered all over its front, and either way, the bus driver panics. What happens next?"

Archer paused to spread his hands. "He brakes hard while turning the wheel in a delayed instinctive reaction to dodge the dead body over the front of the bus." He continued. "The bus goes out of control, tumbling and rolling over, killing everyone inside. It might even tumble far enough to cross the street, and into a shop with more people inside. So, tell me, Shirou Emiya. How many people would you actually have saved?"

"Saving someone means not saving someone else." Rin added. "You know this. You told it to me once, just like Kiritsugu Emiya told you before."

"No!" Shirou exploded. "That scenario is all wrong! It doesn't have to end like that! The driver could have just braked without turning the wheel! No one else needs to die!"

"No one else but you, you mean." Rin sourly said.

Shirou looked down, his eyes shadowed and haunted. "…it doesn't matter." He murmured after a moment. "If it means someone else doesn't have to die, I'm willing to die in their place."

Archer snorted. "Idiot boy." He sneered, and Shirou wordlessly snarled in his direction.

"Then let's examine this scenario." Rin quickly began. "There are two ships sinking at sea. One ship has fifty people on board, the other has forty-nine. One of the latter is Shirou Emiya, and he's the only one able to keep the ships from sinking, but there's only enough time to save one ship. What would he do?"

"He'd fix his ship," Archer answered. "Then try and save the other. He'd fail, of course, but he'd still try. He wouldn't be Shirou Emiya if he didn't."

"But," Rin continued. "That means out of ninety-nine people, he only managed to save himself, and forty-eight others. What of the other fifty?"

"He could always abandon ship, head over to the other ship, and fix it before it sinks." Archer said with a smile. "He wouldn't have time to go back and fix the previous ship, but hey, fifty-one lives saved sounds better than only forty-nine, right?"

"That is Kiritsugu Emiya's Path of Least Bloodshed." Rin said flintily. "One life to save ten, ten lives to save a hundred, a hundred lives to save a thousand, a thousand to save a million."

Archer shrugged. "That's what it means to be a Hero of Justice." He said before smiling at Shirou, whose face turned pale. Despite Archer's magically-altered appearance, that smile was perfectly recognizable. Shirou saw it every time he looked in the mirror, after all. "I would know. After all, that's how I became a Counter-Guardian."

"STOP IT!" Shirou shouted. "IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THAT! IT'S ONLY LIKE THAT BECAUSE YOU'VE…YOU'VE TWISTED EVERY SCENARIO TO ALWAYS END IN THE WORST POSSIBLE WAY! I…KIRITSUGU…WE…!"

A hand grabbed Shirou's arm, gently but firmly, restraining him from launching himself at Archer. "That's enough, you two." Sakura softly said. "You've made your point."

"And you think it got through?" Archer asked. "You heard what he just said. Even after knowing what he'll become, at what his path leads to, he still thinks…"

"Shut the fuck up, senpai."

Archer blinked, and wordlessly worked his jaw in surprise. Even though he knew this wasn't Sakura Matou and never had been, there were still so many similarities that hearing something so blunt from her came like a slap to the face.

Meanwhile, Sakura turned to Shirou, and cupped his face. "They're both right, of course." She said with a smile. "But they don't really need to rub it in. After all, it's not like they haven't said anything you haven't already told yourself. Isn't that right, senpai?"

Shirou looked away. "Not with the same words," Sakura continued. "But the message is the same. Or am I wrong, senpai?"

"No…you aren't." Shirou said with a sigh. "But…I…"

"…you don't actually want to be a Hero of Justice." Sakura finished for him. "At least, not the way your father saw it. Not the way the future you might become would see it either. For you, just being able to save one person the way your father saved you would be enough. You told me that yourself, senpai."

Shirou looked at her suspiciously. "I…I'm not sure I'd tell anyone that much about myself." He said. "I've never told Fuji-nee that, or Saber or…"

Sakura laughed and patted Shirou's cheek. "People say funny things after they have sex." She said with a wink, causing Rin – both of them – and Archer's jaws to drop in shock, while Shirou turned red. "Relax, I wasn't trying to seduce you, well, your counterpart, nor was it casual sex. It was the Holy Grail War, and you needed prana. So…prana transfer…"

Sakura paused and shrugged. "Well, look on the bright side," she said with a smile. "It took the edge off this argument. And most importantly, even though you only really want to save one person, you still want to help as many people as you can, right?"

"…right."

"Then survive the war, and carry on with your plan." Sakura said encouragingly. "You want to be a lawyer, don't you? A super crime fighter? Well, if you want a more…proactive, way to help, you could always join the police. Either way, you can do it. Your counterpart finished law school and got his lawyer's license already, so I see no reason why you can't in your turn."

Sakura smiled wider, and bumped her forehead against the dumbstruck Shirou. "I can see why my counterpart fell for you." She said. "Do your best, Mister Superhero."

Shirou stared at Sakura with a mix of suspicion and disbelief, before sighing and smiling back. "Of course I will." He said.

"That's the spirit!" Sakura said, patting him on a shoulder.

"You shouldn't encourage him…" Archer began, only for Rin to support her sister.

"Archer, shut the fuck up." She snapped, and Archer palmed his face in compliance.

"Now, as for you." Sakura said, sizing up the other Rin who was still trapped looking peevish inside her bubble. It popped a moment later with a gesture from the older Rin, and letting the younger Rin out.

"Go ahead." She immediately blustered. "Say what you want to say. I…urgh!"

"Behold," Sakura theatrically said while brandishing the parchment in question. "The Letter of Marque signed by Her Excellency, the Vice Director of the Mages Association, Lord of the College of Law, and the Supreme Magus of the Modern Era, Lorelei Barthomeloi."

"You work for Lord Barthomeloi?" the younger Rin practically squeaked out.

"Technically, everyone in the Mages Association works for her." The older Rin said with a dismissive wave. "She is the Vice Director, and all that."

"B-b-b-b-but this other seal…" the younger Rin spluttered. "…it belongs to Lord Z-Z-Zelretch!"

"Well, duh." The older Rin said with a roll of her eyes. "Me and Sakura here are both from two different alternate timelines. It's only natural that the Lord Second would get involved. That, and he's my master."

"YOU'RE AN APPRENTICE OF THE WIZARD MARSHAL?"

The older Rin tsked in annoyance. "Was I ever so shrill?" she asked no one in particular.

"Yes." Shirou and Archer said at once, causing the older Rin to glare at them in indignation.

"It's kind of obvious," Sakura dryly remarked. "I mean, my sister's carrying a replica of the Jeweled Sword."

"And what about you?" the younger Rin skeptically asked. "If you haven't managed to get that far, well…I have to say being sent to Matou might actually have been better, since you clearly would have been a waste as the Tohsaka heiress."

The older Rin snarled and had to be physically restrained by Archer and Shirou lest she actually pounce on and murder her younger counterpart for talking about things she knew nothing about. Sakura, though, just looked amused.

"Oh, I can execute at will." She said smugly.

"What?" the younger Rin asked.

"Do you really think they gave me the Color Designation of Blue just because?" Sakura asked. Granted, she was laying it on really thick here, but the younger Rin didn't know that, and it wasn't a complete lie either. She really was that close to finding a way to the reach the Root. Usurp the Heavens, as it were, the way King Gilgamesh described it. "No, they gave me that color because I've already completed my path. I'm just procrastinating actually walking it. But I will. Eventually. I just want to enjoy myself a little while longer."

The younger Rin, though, was fixated on the Letter of Marque, and the title that came with Sakura's name and color. "…Murderer Blue…Murderer…w-w-w-who did you murder?" she asked in a whisper.

Sakura smiled mockingly. "Who do you think?" she asked, and Rin gasped in horror before exploding in anger.

"MONSTER!" she screamed, lunging forward to grab at Sakura's neck.

But with a crack of thunder, the younger Rin was violently thrown back by a violent burst of displaced air. "I wonder who the monster really is here." Little Rin mused as she floated over to sit on top of the younger Rin, who immediately started squirming under the vengeful spirit's weight, all the while dazed and in pain from ruptured eardrums. "My big little sister, who killed me because a) she only wanted to get the same amount of attention from our stupid parents, who b) wanted to sell her to a vampire, and c) didn't actually know at the time the difference between dying and sleeping. Because you know, our stupid parents never actually bothered to teach her anything?"

"T-t-that's just…magus tradition…!" the younger Rin gasped out. "Father had…no choice…"

Little Rin scowled, irises turning red as the younger Rin gasped again, feeling her prana getting drained out of her. "You are the monster here." Little Rin growled. "Even now, you still don't want to use your head. You still kiss Tokiomi and Aoi's feet. You even think it's better for my big little sister to have gone to Matou to be raped and tortured."

"W-w-w-what?" the younger Rin gasped.

"Oh please!" Little Rin snapped, getting up to jump up and down on top of the younger Rin's back, ignoring her pained protests. "What, did you think your little sister's hair and eyes just turned violet for no reason? Think, Rin, think!"

Little Rin pointed her fingers at her temples while stooping down to look at her counterpart in the eyes. "If it's not hair dye or contacts, what else could have caused it?" she asked.

"Alchemy, of course." The older Rin replied. "Alchemy to alter her genetic makeup, effectively making her a Matou. And you know as well as I do that alchemy of that kind is very painful."

"To be a magus is to walk with death!" the younger Rin shouted. "Pain is irrelevant…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!"

"Is it?" Little Rin snarled, electricity surging from her and all over the younger Rin below her. "This is nothing compared to what your sister would have felt, but you're screaming, aren't you?"

"Hey, knock it off." Sakura snapped. "Torturing her isn't getting us anywhere."

Little Rin snorted but obeyed. "You're too kind, big little sister." She said, floating off her counterpart to go to Sakura, and draping herself around Sakura's neck and shoulders.

"You know as well as I do that Shinji's a piece of shit who thinks women are only supposed to worship the ground he steps on." The older Rin said to her counterpart. "What makes you think he acts any differently at home? Much less to someone who acts as docile as Sakura – Sakura Matou, that is – does?"

The younger Rin was silent for a long moment. "…even if it's all true," she bitterly said. "It's not my place to interfere. It's not my business what another magus family…"

There was a snap-hiss, and then Sakura had the other Rin at swordpoint with a beam saber. "Alright, I've had enough of this back-and-forth crap." She crossly said. "So, let's get straight to the point. You've never been to the Clock Tower. I have. In fact, I've spent around a decade there, and let me tell me you now: no family ever follows the one child per generation rule. One heir per generation, sure, but never one child. Lord Trambelio, for instance, has twelve daughters. Off the top of my head, El-Melloi has at least three branches. I can't even count how many cousins we have thanks to our paternal Edelfelt grandmother, and all of them are magi to boot."

"Then they shouldn't call themselves magi if they won't follow the right and proper way of things." The younger Rin snapped.

"For someone who's supposed to be a genius, you are remarkably hardheaded." Sakura snapped before pointing a free hand to a temple. "Think, Rin, think! The concept of 'heir and a spare' exists for a reason! If I kill you now, what will happen to your precious Tohsaka lineage? Oh, I know. It ends with you. It won't even end in a glorious and noble attempt to claim the Root, it ends simply because you pissed off a superior magus and got beheaded out of pique!"

The older Rin sighed and massaged her temples. "No, she's not hardheaded." She finally said. "She's just being stubborn."

"That's the same thing!"

"…fine, she's just too proud to admit her mistakes."

"That's still the same thing!"

The older Rin rolled her eyes while coming closer. "She's too proud to admit that she's basically acted more like a spoiled, rich, and idle heiress instead the prodigy magus heiress that she should have been." She said. "To admit that she'd been acting like a robot or worse, a zealot, taking a dead man's words like holy writ instead of actually using her head. That she'd long known something was wrong with Sakura, but couldn't face her because it would mean going against everything her father taught her. That she'd pretended Sakura was happier as a Matou all this time, when instead she was probably being abused."

The older Rin paused, and knelt down. "Yes, I know." She said while meeting the younger Rin's eyes. "I am you. Just like you are every mistake I've ever made, I am you redeemed. Everything we could ever be…should have been, even, and not just a carbon copy of that mongrel dog, Tokiomi Tohsaka."

The younger Rin glared at her counterpart. "It's not that simple." She snapped.

"It is." The older Rin said with a smile before tilting her head. "And you know it. Again, I am you. I know how you think. What you said just now? Just another excuse, to hide your fear that if you reach out to Sakura, she'll lash out, angry and hateful at you taking so long to help her."

"Then what's the point?" the younger Rin asked.

"Of course she has the right to lash out." The older Rin replied. "She's just a Human being. And don't you dare say that because she was born in a magus family, she should act differently. No, she doesn't. None of us should. Magi are still Human…the best part of all of us. Anyone who says otherwise…well, they're the kind of magi who eventually end up getting killed by Executors or Enforcers, or just have prices set on their heads."

The older Rin shrugged. "Reach out to her." She said, holding out a hand. "Help her. And when she gets angry, don't act strong. Be strong. Be there for her. Be the family you were always meant to be."

"…I'll try." The younger Rin whispered after a moment, and finally accepting the offered hand, the older Rin pulling her up to her feet. "But…would it really work out well?"

"It worked out for me." The older Rin said, but deciding to leave out all the complicated and messy details around her reconciliation with her sister. "Though, if you do want proof, there's Sakura here and her little big sister. They get along fine, despite the former murdering the latter."

"We're a special case." Sakura dully said, while Little Rin nodded sagely.

"Uh-huh!" she agreed.

"Right…my point stands regardless." The older Rin said.

"I…I'll do what I can…" the younger Rin conceded, looking down while biting her lip, and clutching at her own arm.

Sakura made a sound of disgust. "I need a drink." She said, and before anyone could react, she'd pressed a gem on her armband. Shimmering light surrounded her, the air vibrating to produce a tinkling noise, and then she was gone.

The older Rin sighed at the sight. "Well, I guess I can't blame her." She admitted. "And I guess I could use a drink too. I might as well join her. Well, then…do your best. Think about everything we've said, take it to heart, and be better. Trust us, it'll all be for the best."

"Hey, wait!" the younger Rin protested as her counterpart also pressed a gem on her armband. "About this whole mess…what's going on?"

"We'll tell you when we come back…" the older Rin said, even as shimmering light and tinkling notes enveloped her, and then she too was gone.

A/N

Yes, canonically Shirou did want to be a lawyer after graduating from school. Then the Holy Grail War happened, things went to hell, and he decided to follow in Kiritsugu's footsteps, turning himself into the kind of person he hates the most. Well, there is that one timeline where he ends up in Avalon…

…but in hindsight, I suspect Shirou wouldn't be happy in Avalon. Not with his OCD need to help people. Except…there's no one to help in Avalon. He'll either go mad or leave just to stay sane.